1 in a Million ?
Rarely something unusual happens !
I was. Flying a Seneca Five from mid UK to Inverness! Not good weather with a front over Scotland and a solid line of cells running west to East
I started off a FL 090 just on top of a solid deck of ice holding clouds and knowing about the line of cells further north knew I would have to eyeball a way through into Inverness.
I would have to stay on top and with rising cloud tops requested a climb.
I was now in cloud and picking up ice. I further requesting the climb!
It was FL130 before I struggled on top having cleared ice with the boots!
I could see a wall of CBs ahead running west to East and probably topping 28000 feet.
All of a sudden there was a large crack sound ! What had happened was a fluke! a one in a million chance!
On each blade was a cable which led to the prop anti ice! The Seneca had three blades on the counter rotating engines.
The Seneca five had a Lopresti cowl which was too close to the three cables and had cut through them meaning no anti ice.
A large chunk of ice came off being hurled straight forward bending round the nose and hit the counter rotating prop on the other side bending the tip.
The blade hurled the chunk of ice into the nose puncturing the nose and then came back into the screen shattering into a snow storm.
There was a slight vibration.
I had to go almost to Aberdeen to find a gap and let down approaching Inverness from the East
Landing they informed me that they had had hail the size of Golf balls
We fixed the one blade to a flyable state and a few hours later I had to find a way out staying low level
I opted to fly along Loch Ness to the west where I knew the Cb ice stopped and it was my intention to stay low out of ice
and follow the islands south past Prestwick.
All started to plan keeping the loch below at maybe 500 feet but the weathers was getting worse and I was now down to 200 feet over the Loch with visibility in heavy rain very bad and aware of high terrain around.
That was it! I climbed into cloud to the MSA and stayed IMC till I burst into blue skies to the west!
It was then a good low level trip past the islands and South
What a fluke that such a chunk of ice would hurl forward against the speed of the aircraft, cross the nose and hit the opposite prop?
The cowl was modified by Piper to stop the cowl cutting through the cables
Last edited by Pace; 21st May 2015 at 23:50.